Peter Goldblatt
B.A. Krukoff Curator of African Botany, Missouri Botanical Garden, United States
Research Centre for Plant Growth and Development, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
John C. Manning
Compton Herbarium, South African National Biodiversity Institute, South Africa
Research Centre for Plant Growth and Development, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Conclusions:Cineraria purpurata L. (1771) (Asteraceae) is recognised as the earliest name for Mairia hirsuta DC. (1836) and the new combination M. purpurata (L.) J.C.Manning is provided for the species. Psilosiphon Welw. ex Goldblatt & J.C.Manning (2015) (Iridaceae) is a later homonym for Psilosiphon Entwisle (1989). The replacement name Afrosolen Goldblatt & J.C.Manning is proposed and the necessary new combinations for the 16 taxa currently recognised in the genus are provided.

Introduction

The identity of Cineraria purpurata L. (1771) has remained uncertain until now. It was described by Linnaeus from one of over 200 specimens of Cape plants sent to him by the Governor at the Cape, Rijk Tulbagh (1699–1771), appointed to the post in 1751. Tulbagh had an abiding interest in natural history, and letters in the Cape Archives attest that he regularly sent staff members of the Company’s garden into the interior ‘ter opsoeking en versameling van Planten, gewassen, kruidjen en Insecten’ [‘to search for and collect plants, crops, herbs and insects’] (Glenn & Germishuizen 2010). Although relatively detailed for the time, the description provided by Linnaeus (1771) was certainly not enough to identify the species on its own, and the name was subsequently included by De Candolle (1836) amongst the 11 species of Cineraria that were inadequately known to him. The name then disappeared from the botanical literature, and it is not cited by Harvey (1865) in his treatment of the family for the Flora capensis. It reappears as one of the species excluded from Cineraria L. by Cron et al. (2006) in their revision of the genus, where they lectotypify it against Tulbagh 44 in the Linnean Herbarium (LINN) but without further comment as to its identity. Although now linked to a specimen, the application of the name remained uncertain (Jarvis 2007) until we examined the type and recognised it as the species currently known as Mairia hirsuta DC.

The description of C. purpurata L. is relatively complete, including the habit [herbaceous with simple, sulcate stems] and foliage, with details of the leaf shape, margins and vestiture [alternate and basally congested, petiolate and obovate with revolute and subserrate or serrulate margins, the blade pubescent above and tomentose beneath], and comparative size [as large as those of Chrysanthemum leucanthum], the nature and approximate size of the inflorescence [pedunculate with a solitary head as large as that in Amellus] and the involucre [phyllaries free, subequal and pubescent], the colour of the rays [purple], and the observation that the pappus bristles are plumose (Figure 1). The combination of herbaceous habit, moderately large capitula with purple rays, and plumose pappus bristles is diagnostic of the genus Mairia Nees amongst southern African Asteraceae, and this identification is confirmed by examination of the lectotype (Figure 2). This small genus of six species endemic to the Cape Floristic Region of southern Africa is defined by its geophytic, scapose habit with mostly broad, leathery leaves, female-fertile ray florets with white or pink to purple limb, and ribbed cypselas with a biseriate pappus, the outer series of reduced barbellate or plumose bristles and the inner of plumose bristles (Herman & Zinnecker-Wiegand 2016).

The recent publication of a detailed revision of the genus Mairia by Herman and Zinnecker-Wiegand (2016) enables us to identify C. purpurata as conspecific with M. hirsuta. This Langeberg endemic is unique in the genus in having the alternately inserted leaves rather more loosely aggregated towards the base of the stem than in the other species, in which they are strictly rosulate. The margins are revolute and regularly crenate or crenate-serrate, and the blades are elliptic to obovate, and glabrous to loosely lanate above and densely or more sparsely lanate beneath. As the earlier name C. purpurata takes priority over M. hirsuta (McNeil et al. 2012:Art. 11.3), we provide the necessary new combination and synonymy below.

The date and collector of Tulbagh’s C. purpurata remain unknown. Tulbagh sent a major expedition from Cape Town to the Eastern Cape in 1752, during which plants were collected by Hendrik Beenke of Celle, overseer of the Company’s ‘Schuur’ [barn], and which would have passed along the foothills of the Langeberg, where the species is endemic. Alternatively, and in our opinion more likely, the species was collected by Johann Auge (1711–1805) on a more strictly botanical expedition. Auge was promoted to superintendent of the Company’s Garden by Tulbagh, and given ample opportunity to visit distant parts of the colony in search of plants. His selection by the Swedish botanist Carl Thunberg (1743–1828) as guide on the latter’s journey to the Eastern Cape in 1772–1773 presupposes Auge’s familiarity with the route, indicating that he had travelled it before then, on which occasion/s he too would have had opportunity of collecting C. purpurata on the Langeberg. By this time Auge had accumulated a significant herbarium, part of which was purchased in 1764 and formed the basis of Bergius’s Descriptiones plantarum ex Capite Bonae Spei (1767). At least some of these species were also described by Linnaeus in his Mantissa plantarum (1767).

Acknowledgements

Paul Herman confirmed the identification of Cineraria purpurata and suggested valuable corrections to the manuscript.

Competing interests

The author declares that he has no financial or personal relationships which may have inappropriately influenced him in writing this article.

2. Afrosolen Goldblatt & J.C.Manning, a new name for Psilosiphon Welw. ex Goldblatt & J.C.Manning (Iridaceae), with new combinations

Authors: Peter Goldblatt and John C. Manning

Dates:

Received: 19 Oct. 2015

Accepted: 29 Jan. 2016

Introduction

The name Psilosiphon Entwisle (1989), published for a genus of algae in the family Lemaneaceae (now Batrachospermaceae) predates Psilosiphon Welw. ex Goldblatt & J.C.Manning (2015), established for 15 species of tropical and southern Africa Iridaceae that were segregated from Lapeirousia Pourr (Goldblatt & Manning 2015). Although Psilosiphon Welw. was cited in synonymy under Lapeirousia by J.G. Baker (1878), it was validated only by Goldblatt & Manning (2015) and is thus an illegitimate homonym. We propose the new name Afrosolen for this genus of Iridaceae subfamily Crocoideae. The generic name reflects the tubular perianth of this widespread African genus (Greek solen = pipe).

New combinations are provided for the species recognized by Goldblatt & Manning (2015).

Taxonomic treatment

Note: Heterotypic synonyms are not included below but are presented in full by Goldblatt (1990) and Goldblatt & Manning (2015).